Huarache Farms uses low-water systems to grow lettuce and vegetables across four L.A. yards. Founder Mike Wood dreams of even more small-scale farming.
It’s a warming Sunday morning at the Atwater Village Farmers Market, and close to the entrance on Garden Avenue a chipper voice is beckoning shoppers.. He stands behind a table, wearing glasses, sandals, running shorts and a straw hat, which has a hole in its crown from rubbing against low-slung orange branches.
Mandy Wood, co-owner of Huarache Farms, tosses harvested sunflower sprouts into a container after washing them.“He’s a total food nerd,” says his wife and business partner, Mandy Wood, commenting on how Mike will check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of most nutritious fruits and vegetables to decide what to grow. “I just eat what I feel like eating,” she says, although her diet is still fueled by their farm collective.
Mike and Mandy met in 2005 at Citrus Community College in Glendora. Attracted to Mandy’s curly hair, he sat beside her and, in an attempt at coquetry, opened an H.P. Lovecraft book. This was 2014, and Mike was raising chickens too. He grew food to feed his 20-odd fish, and the chicken feed included cayenne pepper, which reddened the yolks. Customers loved this. Mike expanded to 100 chickens. A cacophony of clucks led to neighbor complaints, followed by a citation from the city.
In 2019, Mike added two more backyards: Sunland Farm in Glendale and the Wood Farm in Sierra Madre. He also met Isaac Qureshi and Erika Hang, who had Sustaina, a business platform. They helped Mike create an accounting system to accurately split the payments between him and the various backyards; some of them would get 60% because they tilled while Mike sold, others 40%. Through Sustaina, Huarache also launched a Community Supported Agriculture box, which delivers around Sierra Madre.
Huarache doesn’t use manure, and because it grows diverse crops in high-yield, low-impact ways, it doesn’t use chemicals or pesticides, making its produce safe to eat right from the ground. Crops are harvested before pests become a problem, and there are too many varieties for an infestation. Plants grow hydroponically, and Huarache infuses the water with Sea-90, a dense mineral compound that enhances the macro- and micro-nutrients while keeping plants drought-resistant.
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